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"Since you declare war, I accept it.

Kongpob Suthiluck."

If Kongpob Suthiluck thought I was going to be afraid after reading his message, he was so wrong. So maybe everything was going to be a lot more challenging now, since Kongpob was probably going to attack me and not just simply counter every scheme I come up with, but I didn't work hard studying just to be outsmarted by someone like him.

The only thing was, I was running out of plans. Rumors definitely wouldn't work, no matter how true they could seem. People just loved him too much to believe in any of them. And as for the spreading of his number, it was pretty well but I bet that after a week of unanswered calls and unreplied messages, girls were bound to stop trying. I needed to come up with something new, something that was guaranteed to work.

I was thinking all about my plans the next day of school as I headed for my locker. But when I reached it, my heart started beating fast in nervousness. My locker's padlock had been broken and the door was opened halfway. I opened it wider, only to find all my things in a mess, like someone had rummaged carelessly through them.

For a moment, I just stood, looking at the terrible scene. But when I finally got back to my sense, I started fixing my things and checking whether there was something missing among them. Luckily, almost everything was there. Books, extra pencils and pens, papers, my jacket...

"Excuse me, you're Arthit, right?" someone, a girl, tapped my shoulder as I busily tried to rearrange my things.

I stopped what I was doing for a second and turned to her. "Yes, what do you want?" I asked, failing to hide the irritation in my tone. I hated it when someone touched my things and now was not any different.

The girl looked a bit younger than me, and she had a scared expression on her face upon hearing my tone. "I found this on my desk earlier, so I asked around on where I could find you," she answered, holding out a familiar notebook.

As soon as I saw the notebook, my eyes widened. It was my precious notebook where I wrote all my notes. I always brought it with me, but I had accidentally left it inside my locker yesterday. "Oh my gosh, thank you so much for returning this!" I told her gratefully as I took it from her.

The girl's expression turned to bewilderment. She must've been confused by my sudden mood change, but nevertheless, she accepted my appreciation. "No problem." She remarked, smiling a little before she turned and walked away.

When the girl was gone, I checked the notebook for torn pages or any damages that might have been done to it. But fortunately, thank goodness, there was none. It looked like the person who did this just wanted to scare me. And it didn't need much thinking for me to know who was behind this. 

I guessed Kongpob was serious when he said he was accepting my war. It didn't matter though, because I came well-prepared for his attacks. I wasn't afraid at all.

Untying the ribbon that held my fringe away from my face, I couldn't help but let out a sigh. I knew there was something useful about using a ribbon instead of a headband for my hair. I tied the ribbon around my locker's lock so it would close temporarily. "That should do for now." I said to myself satisfactorily.

I then headed for my first class. I didn't want to be late and get myself into trouble again. When I got to class though, everyone was busily running around the room, passing papers to each other. I walked over to my seat and turned to Nam, who seemed to be as confused as I was.

"What's going on?" I asked her, not actually expecting her to know either, from the look of her face, but it was worth a try.

She shrugged. "I have no idea either. I just got here, and when I did, everyone's been acting that way already." She replied, looking over towards the person on her other side. "What are those papers for?" she asked the girl.

The girl looked up from the stack of papers and smiled. "Oh, they're notes for History and Physics class." She answered with a careless tone.

"Can I see?" Nam asked politely. The girl nodded and handed her the papers. Nam, in turn, shifted towards me so that we could both see what it really was. 

"Wait a minute, isn't this...?"

"My handwriting!" I finished for Nam, exclaiming in shock. "Where'd you get this???" I asked the girl, suddenly feeling beyond angry. As I had said before, I had always been sensitive about other people copying my works. And everybody knew that.

The girl seemed surprised by my sudden rage. But still, she answered me nicely. "Someone from the class down the hall gave them a while ago. He gave us a lot of copies."

"The class down the hall? ...Isn't that Kongpob's class?" I asked Nam, standing up from my seat, ready to confront him.

Nam nodded. "Yes, it is, but...where are you going? The class is going to start very soon, you might get sent to detention again." She reminded me.

Just as she did, I caught sight of our teacher nearing the door to our classroom. I decided that I'd rather not risk getting in trouble so I took my seat and convinced myself that I could just confront him later.

During our class, it seemed like everyone in our classroom got hold of my notes because every single answer given in our recitation seemed to be my answer. Kongpob didn't deserve just a confrontation for this. He deserved something way more worse than that. But the problem was, what was it? What could I do that would really make him feel the way I did now?

"This is so frustrating!" I complained to Nam as we sat down for lunch.

"What is?" she asked.

I let out a sigh. "What else? My non-functioning brain. I just can't think of a way to get back at him." I replied as I hit my forehead with my palm a couple of times. "My mind is supposed to be good in thinking up revenge, but why can't it give me anything right now?"

May suddenly arrived at our table. "Maybe because it's a sign that you should stop?" she remarked, taking a seat across me. "I just received a copy of your famous notes. They're really the best! But...aren't you upset about it?"

"Why do you think I want to come up with something so much? If I let him get away with this, I'm never going to forgive myself." I responded. "I mean, I even have to buy a new padlock now. And I need to take home all my things inside my locker too, because someone might steal something again."

May shrugged. "If I were you, I'd just give up. Who knows what he can do next?"

I shook my head. "I'm never going to give up. Not now. Not until I win this."

For the rest of the day, I had to endure the torture of hearing my answers in discussions, not coming from my own lips but from someone else. And so, I was overjoyed when the dismissal bell rang.

"Are you sure you don't need any help in carrying your things from the locker?" Nam offered again.

I shook my head. "No need. I can carry them." I told her, not wanting to be a bother to her.

We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. As I walked back towards my locker, I caught sight of Michael waving at me not far ahead. I wondered why he was acting that way because we hadn't really been friendly to each other though we met in detention. Once he was standing in front of me, he stopped.

"Hi Arthit." he greeted with a friendly smile. "Do you remember me?"

I nodded. "Michael, right?" I replied, pretending to have just remembered.

His smile got even wider. "So you do remember me. Then do you remember when I talked about the girl during one of my games?" he asked hopefully.

I nodded again. "Yeah, why do you ask?" I replied, not seeing where he was getting at.

"She's the girl you're eating lunch with earlier today." He explained with a grin. "Can you introduce me to her?" he asked, blushing.

"You mean, Nam?" I asked, confused since I knew that Nam didn't play badminton.

Michael frowned. "No, not Kongpob's ex-girlfriend. I don't like to make Kongpob mad at me." He remarked.

"Oh, you mean May!" I exclaimed in realization, suddenly remembering her presence a while ago. "Why do you want me to introduce her to you? Why don't you just introduce yourself?"

He once again blushed a little. "Well, I think it would leave a better impression if her friend introduces me to her." He explained. "Please?"

I couldn't help but feel amused by his actions. I agreed with him about a guy introducing himself randomly to a girl. It felt too pushy and I didn't like that much either. However, I didn't feel like introducing him to May and then find out he's just as deceiving as Kongpob. I needed to see first if he was different.

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. Nam mentioned Michael to be the varsity captain of the basketball team when I told her about detention. And Kongpob was one of the MVP players in the team.

"I'll do it on one condition." I told him, leaning closer and whispering my evil idea to him.

He listened, then looked at me wide-eyed, before frowning at me. "I don't know...people would get really mad at me for sure."

"You're the team captain, everyone would trust your judgment. Besides, it's the only way you can make me introduce you to May." I reminded him.

"Fine." He finally agreed with a heavy sigh. "I'll do it."

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