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Part 32

"Arthit..." 

I lifted my eyes and blinked as I looked into a pair of warm brown eyes in a boyishly handsome face. Any artist would love to draw the perfect straight nose and the dimple in the chin. I almost gaped at his handsomeness – who was this?

"...Umm, will you go out with me?" 

This time, my jaw dropped. Aya and May had identical shocked expressions on their faces. The brown eyes twinkled in amusement.

"No, I'm not joking. My name is Nat and this is my first year in university. Nice to meet you all." He bowed as my brows arched in surprise – goodness, he was two years younger than me. My junior just asked me out?

"Before you say anything, I want you to know that I know all about Kongpob Suthiluck and you..." 

I would have blushed to the roots of my hair if I hadn't been totally confused by him. What on earth was he thinking of? "...however, so long as you are both still not officially a couple, I still have a chance with you and the right to ask you out," he continued smoothly, eyes twinkling. "So, I'll see you tomorrow morning outside the university again to make our date plans." 

My mouth was still open when he waved to all of us cheerfully and left after giving me one last look. This was definitely the first time anyone so cute and normal had asked me out. With such confidence! Wow...

My legs gave way and I collapsed onto the ground as Aya and May immediately pounced on me. "Will you go with him, Arthit???" 

However, my mind was on other things. What would be Kongpob Suthiluck's reaction when he found out? 

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Disappointingly as usual, not a muscle moved in his face when Aya and May told him about the cute handsome guy asking me out.

"Oh, did he? It's none of my business..." he barely managed to stifle a yawn as he walked away from them. 

I was left down in the dumps as per normal. 

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However, when Kongpob Suthiluck leaked out that private piece of information at dinner time at the house, the reaction was much more louder than I expected.

"What ?!?! Arthit is thinking of going out with someone else?" That was Mrs Suthiluck screaming. She was visibly upset and Mr Suthiluck did his best to try to comfort her.

"I don't approve of you going out with younger boys, Arthit..." 

Oooops, I knew that look and that tone only too well – it's obvious that my dad was on Auntie's side, still trying to keep me together with this "never-going-to-happen-love-with-Kongpob". 

You don't want to date me, but you try to ruin every opportunity I have to date someone else??!! Wait till I get my hands on you... -_-

I glared at Kongpob Suthiluck who continued to eat his dinner placidly as if nothing had happened...

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I found my footsteps getting heavier and heavier as I was nearing the University gates next day. Perhaps this was just a prank that Nat guy was playing? Perhaps it was just a bet that he had with his friends to see if I would stupidly believe him and turn up? 

My confidence was diminishing with every step I took, but somehow, I forced myself to continue. Brace up Arthit, it's not as if you like him. What do you have to lose?

"Arthit, you're here..." 

I lifted up my head and secretly heaved a sigh of relief when I saw Nat smiling at me warmly, standing at the entrance.

"Hi," I said and smiled a little awkwardly. He led me to a nearby bench and began to tell me about himself and...me.

"I've seen you often before, but you've never noticed me. Actually, to be frank I started noticing you because of Kongpob Suthiluck. He's a legend here, so all of us first years are pretty curious about him. Then I started to notice that there was always this cute guy around him. Subsequently, it became rather obvious that he didn't treat you very well..." His voice was a little lower and a bit hesitant saying that. He probably didn't want to cause me any more pain and I was grateful for that. " ...yet no matter how mean he was to you, you never gave up on liking him. Your determination was what impressed me Arthit, you never gave up." There was an admiring look in those warm brown eyes that made me blush.

Then he held out his hand to me, "Since Kongpob Suthiluck doesn't appear to appreciate what he has, nor does he seem interested in you..." He continued confidently, ignoring that fact that I winced at his words, "....why not be with me instead?"

"NOOOO!" 

Before I could reply, a loud roar from the nearby bushes made me jump and I could see that Nat was equally startled as Max leapt out from the bushes. What the hell??? Is he a freaking ninja??? How long had he been hiding there???

"I don't approve of you going out with MY Arthit!!!"

I groaned inwardly. After all these years, Max has still not given up on his one-sided crush. I knew too well what it felt like...

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Poor Max...

Poor me...

"That's strange... Arthit has nothing to do with you, he's his own person and belongs to himself." Nat replied to him calmly.

"You're not my boyfriend, Max." I told Max calmly. I rolled my eyes when I saw his horrified expression. Please, I have absolutely done nothing to provide him with the least encouragement. My conscience is clear!

"Hey Nat!" That voice was really familiar. I looked up to see the devil's sister, I mean Krystal walking towards us. Oh...great.

"Did you manage receive the notes that Fuka told me to pass back to you?" 

Nat nodded at her and they chatted for a short while about their assignments. I was rather surprised to realize that Nat and Krystal were actually classmates.

"By the way, I and Arthit are dating." 

His words caught both Krystal and me by surprise. However, almost instantaneously her face was lit up by a sly grin. It was quite obvious that she was thrilled at the prospect of having one less competitor for Kongpob Suthiluck (or so she thought!). I was starting to get a headache from this mess.

"W-we are not dating!" I screamed at them angrily and turned, walking off towards the school building, leaving Nat and Krystal gaping after me, while Max ran behind me, trying to convince me to eat lunch with him later.

Sigh...is this how naive and persistent I have been bugging Kongpob every day with my one-sided crush?

After turning the corner, I managed to lose Max and I was finally alone to take a breather. I leaned against the gym building and released a heavy sigh, my head hurting more painful than before.

"Arthit." I heard another familiar voice call for me and I opened my eyes to see Mrs Suthiluck standing before me, dressed like an old lady with scarfs and huge sunglasses covering her face and an even bigger hat on her head. Gosh, her disguises are always so...peculiar and attract even more attention than needed.

"Auntie, what are you doing here?"

"I-I... happened to be passing by." 

It was rather evident that she was lying, I suspected that she was up to one of her usual schemes again. However, there was a worried looking on her usually carefree face.

"Auntie, is there anything wrong?"

"Ah Arthit," She walked forward and held my hand. "I'm really worried that with that handsome Nat after you, you will give up on Kongpob." 

Her words brought tears to my eyes – dear Mrs Suthiluck, always so sincere in wanting me to be her son-in-law. If only Kongpob Suthiluck felt the same way... 

I sighed inwardly.

"I will never give up on Kongpob Suthiluck, Auntie." I promised her, however for the first time in a long time, this felt like a lie to me and...I wasn't sure how long I would keep liking Kongpob.

"That's lovely, my dear. Ah! This is a great chance for you to make Kongpob jealous, Arthit! It's the easiest to make someone realize that they care for you when they suddenly face competition! Yes! You must use Nat to spur Kongpob's jealousy..." Her eyes were big and shining with newly-found hope.

I tried to my best to protest against this new scheming plan, there were too many holes in it. 

Firstly, Kongpob Suthiluck would actually have to care about me to get jealous. 

Secondly, with his intellect I suspect he would see through the whole scheme immediately.

And thirdly, with his heartless behavior, he would probably make me suffer greatly for agreeing to it.

This plan is bound to fail from the beginning.

However, I finally gave way under Auntie's persistence and not wanting to hurt her, I agreed reluctantly to give it a try. 

I felt that it would be one of the worst mistakes in my life when she then departed cheerily, with a spring in her steps...

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"Nat only asked Arthit out because he's trying to be nice..."

"Yes, he probably just feels sorry for Arthit..."

I gritted my teeth as I held on to my tennis racket tighter, concentrating on returning Mike's serves and trying my best to ignore Jessica's and Krystal's gloating voices. Unfortunately, they seemed intent on making their views heard not only by me, but by the entire population in the courts as well.

"Well, neither of them are anything much anyway..." 

My blood pressure shot up when I heard Kongpob Suthiluck's drawl as he joined in with the mocking group. What was that suppose to mean? 

In a flash, I turned to Kongpob Suthiluck, with a heavy frown on my face. "For your information Kongpob Suthiluck, Nat is intelligent, kind, nice, behaves like a gentleman and very handsome as well. He is a much better person than you can ever hope to be..."

Oh...was that maybe a bit too harsh? Judging by the arrogant smirk on Kongpob's face, no, no it wasn't harsh, it was the truth.

"Thank you...I'm so happy to hear that Arthit has such a good impression of me." 

I turned pink when I realized that Nat had somehow appeared during my little speech and was now standing behind me, listening to the whole thing. Before I could do anything but stammer a little, the brown eyes were looking at me warmly again. "Arthit is also a wonderful person with a great personality and is very very cute too." 

My blush deepened at his words – geeeez this is probably the first time that someone has praised me, and in public too!

"Kongpob, is it alright if you give Arthit to me?" 

His next words to Kongpob Suthiluck startled everyone around, including me. Damn this kid is bold, I gotta give him that! My eyes bulged and immediately, I found myself looking directly at Kongpob Suthiluck, holding my breath in anticipation as I waited for his answer. Jessica and Krystal were both leaning closer, anxious to hear his answer as well.

"Give? He was never mine to give in the first place." 

Ouch...damn...

Again, I felt my fragile heart shatter at his blunt cold answer. 

It hurts so much, Kongpob Suthiluck, it hurts so much to know you simply don't care. At all.

Gathering up the pieces of my shattered pride the best I could, I turned to Nat and said in a strangely calm, yet resolute tone, "I agree Nat, I will go out with you."

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There was a kind of quiet dignity with which he pronounced those words that stopped any further sarcastic remarks from Jessica and Krystal. 

We all kept quiet as he walked out of the tennis court with Nat towering at his side with a huge satisfied smile on his face.

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"That baka!!!"

Before I realized what had happened, I had slammed my tennis racket angrily at the tennis gates, breaking it into half and shocking everyone who had witnessed it.

I had never felt such blind anger in my life. I inhaled deeply and left the court, still baffled by what had just overwhelmed me.

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