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Part 18

Hmmm... I never knew that my culinary skills were so very much in demand. It was rather surprising to hear the number of compliments that Arthit received with regards to the "excellent dinner he cooked".

I would have ignored the entire event as not being worthy of notice if not for some busybodies who thought it their business to inform me of their belief that Arthit would make a very good partner to someone one day, especially since he could prepare such fantastic meals.

If only they knew that they were talking to the chef himself!

Well, seriously I don't really give a damn about their opinions. I don't understand why human beings are always so anxious to share with others their inaccurate deduction and judgment. Anyway before they could annoy me too much, I dragged Arthit away for a tennis practice.

I haven't forgotten the upcoming tennis match. Even if I could not improve his skills, at least I will train him to get out of my way.

I started hitting the balls to Arthit mercilessly, telling him off whenever he did anything wrong. One cannot afford to be too kind to someone like Arthit — harsh words would work wonders rather than sympathy that would not sink into his thick skull.

Apparently, I overdid it a little because even the-always-yelling Mike commented that I was being overboard.

Helloooo!!!??

He's the one who displays schizophrenic tendencies when it comes to tennis — the reason why I'm training Arthit so hard is because of Mike's underhanded means of trying to beat me at tennis by pairing me with the absolutely worst player in the entire club (if not, the world).

Why doesn't he look in the mirror before criticizing me — what about his own ethics?

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After another late session of tennis practice, I was staggering out of the tennis court, totally worn out, when suddenly I had the feeling that someone was watching me again. My skin crawled as I turned around, looking at my surroundings fearfully. It was already late at night and I suddenly became aware of the creepy darkness around me.

A shrill scream tore from my throat and I jumped in fright when my eyes fell on a shadow on the ground next to me. Petrified, I couldn't stop screaming.

Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed my shoulder. My blood turned cold and the world was starting to swirl when they shook me rather hard.

"Stop it, Arthit!" A familiar irate voice sounded near my ear. I turned to see Kongpob Suthiluck frowning at me.

"Kongpob Suthiluck!" I would have flung myself into his arms if he hadn't been gripping my shoulders so tightly, rendering me immobile.

"What's the matter?" The calm tone of his voice soothed my overwrought nerves immediately. I pointed out the shadow to him with a shaking finger.

"A ghost..." my voice was trembling. To my surprise, he did not show any signs of fear. Instead, he actually rolled his eyes at me and walked straight up to a bush where the shadow appeared to be.

"Stop playing the fool — who are you?" He even sounded rather annoyed as he spoke to the bush! To my surprise, there was a rustling sound, then the bush parted and several students around our age appeared with sheepish expressions on their faces.

"Now kindly explain your presence. Why are you stalking Arthit?" Kongpob Suthiluck had his arms folded on his chest as he looked at them, his lips pressed tightly together with displeasure.

My hero (again)... In spite of my fright, I could not help thinking how damn handsome he looked as he stood there unrelenting, waiting them to provide us with an explanation.

"We're actually from the Manga Club..."

"...trying to create a new character for a Manga..."

" ...Arthit's very cute. We decided to make him the main hero character in this new Manga..."

"The comic is going to be called "Tennis Guy"..."

0_0

A manga based on me?

My eyes opened wide in disbelief — not that I wasn't flattered but it's just too strange that someone would want to base a Manga on an ordinary guy like me. And stupid at that like Kongpob reminded me throughout our practice.

Kongpob Suthiluck simply made a noise that sounded extremely like a snort and walked off, leaving me looking after him with a frown on my face.

We had just finished practicing tennis — I must admit that under Kongpob Suthiluck's rough couching, my skills are improving slowly. It is really strange — I only seem to improve when Kongpob Suthiluck is teaching me anything. Perhaps that's because he knows my limits so well that he is able to find the most effective way for me to learn.

Anyway, in spite of the hard training and his diminutive words, I would put up with anything to be near him.

"Kongpob," I looked up to see Jessica approaching Kongpob. "Let's go for a walk."

Kongpob looked as if he was about to refuse when Jessica quickly added, "There's something that I want to tell you."

Without any change in expression, Kongpob simply jammed his hands in his pocket and walked off with Jessica trailing after him happily.

I turned pale as I watched them walking off — what does Jessica want to tell Kongpob Suthiluck in private? I don't have a good feeling about this. I know only too well that she likes him. A lot. What if she decides to reveal her feelings to him?

I gritted my teeth.

I suddenly heard someone swearing very loudly behind me. Shocked, I turned around and saw Mike slamming his fist into the wall as he swore again. What is the matter with him???

I decided to ignore him and quickly catch up with Kongpob and Jessica. Like a faithful shadow, I followed their disappearing figures in the darkness. When they finally stopped walking, I crept to a clump of bushes near them. Their voices carried to me easily.

I heard a scuffling sound next to me and turned quickly. To my shock, my eyes fell on a familiar figure who was crouching next to me.

"Mike!" I gasped in astonishment. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to keep my voice low. He looked just as shocked to see me, then a sheepish expression came over his face. He likes Jessica! The thought flashed through my mind. No wonder he has been trying to practice with her a lot... Poor Mike, just another victim of unrequited love like me.

"...Kongpob, I need to tell you something..." Jessica's voice broke into my thoughts and I quickly turned my attention to what she was saying.

"We have been in the same class for over a year and I believe we know each other pretty well by now. You should know that..."

Ohoh...

NO! I won't allow her to tell Kongpob Suthiluck that she likes him — no way no way!

I leapt to my feet and was about to burst onto the scene when a huge hand covered my mouth and a strong arm wound around my ribcage like an iron band, holding me captive. It was Mike! Stupid Mike! I started struggling and kicking wildly trying to break free from his grip. I actually managed to loosen his hold on me for a minute.

However, he quickly grabbed me again and as I kicked out at him, he tripped and we both fell. He landed sprawling flat on his back and I fell on top of him. Fortunately, my hands broke my fall and we both froze as our faces came within inches of touching.

We were both unaware of the racket that we had been making. Apparently, the sound of our scuffle had disturbed Jessica and Kongpob Suthiluck's conversation. As we remained frozen for some seconds, I could hear Jessica's voice fade off in the background.

"I like..."

The next thing, the bushes parted and both Mike and I stared up into the face of Kongpob Suthiluck. His eyes widened as he took in the scene — me lying on top of Mike with his arms around me. I swear that something flickered behind his dark eyes and they were very very cold as they bore into me. I couldn't suppress a shudder.

"What are you two doing?" His tone was wintry even for his standards.

"Nothing's going on," I quickly said.

"Definitely, definitely," Mike hastily added. "We...er...we were going for a stroll... Individually of course...and we met by chance."

"Yes, yes! Then I accidentally tripped over a root, yes a root and fell on him..." I would hardly classify Mike and myself as expert liars. In fact, our explanation sounded pretty forced even to our own ears.

The cold expression on Kongpob Suthiluck's face did not fade as he looked at both of us disappointingly. Suddenly, he took a step forward and with one swift moment, he reached out and pulled me off Mike.

"Time to train."

With that, he turned abruptly and pulled me in the direction of the tennis courts, his grip tight around my wrist. Train? Didn't we just end a session???

My goodness, Kongpob Suthiluck must really have boundless energy or he probably thinks I need more training.

I sighed and heard an echoing sigh of relief from Mike as I half-jogged to keep up with Kongpob Suthiluck's rapid strides. I turned my head for a last look. Jessica was looking after both of us with a deep frown on her face. She, for one, was definitely not pleased with us interrupting their conversation at such an importune moment.

The sight of her unhappy face filled me with malicious delight. Who said I was a forgiving angel?

Kongpob Suthiluck can only be mine — you keep you dirty hands off him, grrrr...

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Thank goodness I have this ability to do two different things at the same time. I was scowling fiercely at Arthit who was standing at the opposite end of the tennis court, shouting instructions to him as he tried to hit the tennis balls back to me.

However, my mind was still fixated on the image that met my eyes a short while ago.

Total shock would be a mild term for describing what I felt when I saw him sprawled across Mike quite intimately, their lips almost touching.

My blood started to boil when I saw that his arms were on his shoulders and that he was holding tight around his slim waist.

How dare he touch him?

And how could that baka let him hold him?

What if someone else but me saw them like that?

Doesn't he care about his reputation one bit?

Even though their expressions and logic told me that there was nothing going on, I felt...

...very very mad.

That baka is always getting himself into compromising situations like that!!!

Can't he even use that brain of his for once — maybe he did and it didn't really work out.

Anyway, if he doesn't think of his own reputation, he should at least think of mine.

Whenever he's embroiled in any scandal, yours truly (me!) gets dragged down into the mud as well.

And then, both idiots tried to explain to me what happened. Looking at them all nervous and straight-out lying to me made me even more furious!

Arthit should know better than to let Mike touch him so intimately even if it was an accident!

And he was not even making an attempt to get away from him!

Unable to listen to their stupid reasons any longer, I quickly pulled him off Mike, holding onto his wrist tight.

He's so stupid that he would not know when anyone's taking advantage of him...unless people like those morons in the train who were literally molesting him.

I looked at him across the net. Sweat was trickling down him face and his legs looked weak when he tried to run for the ball, however, exhaustion had not wiped off the determined expression on his round face.

He gave me that familiar bright smile that created cute dimples in his puffy cheeks and made his eyes twinkle beautifully when he saw that I had stopped for a moment and was looking at him.

I sighed heavily...

At least he never smiles at Mike in this way...

--__--

Hang on, I didn't quite like the direction my thoughts were going.

What the hell am I thinking???

Immediately, I began to distract myself and started shouting more instructions to him as I sent some balls across the net with great force...

...

But despite how hard I hit the balls to try to distract myself...

Only one thought kept endessly circling in my head...

...

...

...

Arthit should only smile at me like that...

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