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Jessica sneered at me. "Believe what you want to believe. After all, it's fun to see how you'll react when you find out he's just playing with you." She shot back tauntingly. "Oh, and since I see you're really not giving up, here's a little warning. You better watch your back in school."

"What do you mean?" I asked quickly, ready to fight her anytime, anywhere.

But she had already hung up on me.

Gosh, Arthit, what mess have you got yourself into now...

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Back when Nam and Kongpob started getting closer, Jessica gave her a similar threat, saying she better think of her actions before doing anything, because something bad might happen to her. And naive Nam, being unaware of Jessica's crazy obsession with Kongpob nor her capabilities, didn't take it seriously.

That was until she found out that during our final examinations, someone had switched her exam paper with a blank paper. And even though the teacher gave Nam a chance to take the test again, because it was impossible for someone to submit a blank sheet of paper, the fact that Nam had to study again and take a different, much harder test which resulted in a low score, made her realize how much Jessica was willing to mess with her to make sure Nam would break up with Kongpob and she would earn Kongpob's affection instead.

But it wasn't only her who realized that. I did too. And that was why as soon as I got to school today, I was so alert with my surroundings that even the sound of footsteps behind me made me turn around to see who it could be and whether that person was carrying something that might harm me. You could only imagine how I reacted when Nam suddenly pounced at me from behind.

"Aaaaahh!" I screamed on top of my lungs.

"Okay, so I was expecting you to act surprised but not that much." She remarked upon seeing me scream and jump back instead of my usual head nod. "What's up? Why are you so jumpy today? And why weren't you answering my call last night?"

Ah right, I hadn't told Nam that Kongpob had my cell phone. I was afraid that if I did, she'd misunderstand me, think something bad happened and get mad at me again. But that didn't stop me from worrying about the chances of Nam or Daniel calling me and end up talking to Kongpob. However, it seemed like Kongpob had handled the phone call with Michael differently from what I'd expected. I wondered why... "Oh, that's because I was in the bathroom." I made up an excuse.

"Really? But I called you a couple more times and you still wouldn't pick up." She found a loophole in my reasoning.

"Is that so? That's probably because I was taking a shower. You know how long it takes for me to do that." I replied, still sticking to my lie. And for some reason, I wished Kongpob would have answered her call so I wouldn't be in this situation. After all, I never could lie to her, she would always catch me, but if I told her the truth, she might side with Kongpob again and scold me for not being careful.

She raised her brow at me. "You took a shower at 11pm?" she asked, totally unconvinced.

I opened my mouth to explain when Kongpob's phone started ringing in my pocket, causing me to take it out. It was Kongpob calling me, the name 'Wifey' flashing as it rang. I answered it reluctantly, having no other choice. "Hello?"

"Where are you?" He asked immediately, his voice damn husky as always. Damn.

As I listened to Kongpob's voice, I noticed Nam's jaw drop in surprise as she stared at the cell phone in my hand and heard Kongpob's voice on the phone. I tried not to think about it for a moment. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I'm going there, remember? You're on probation." He remarked simply.

Frowning though he couldn't see me, I answered him without enthusiasm. "I'm a few steps away from my locker."

He hung up after that so I placed the phone back inside my pocket and just then, Nam finally spoke up. "Yah, did you change your phone to match Kongpob's, or is that really his?" she asked, wide-eyed, almost in awe.

Seeing no point in lying now, I answered her truthfully. "It's Kongpob's." Then, before she could ask why I had it, I continued with an explanation. "He asked me to switch phones with him. That's the reason why I couldn't answer your call."

I really expected her to be upset by that, considering Kongpob, her ex-boyfriend, wouldn't answer her calls and never let her keep his phone. But after a second's worth of a hurt expression, she turned excited. "That's so sweet! That means he's really falling deeply for you! You should've just told me earlier, rather than making up terrible excuses." She said teasingly, elbowing me in my side.

Suddenly, I remembered that Kongpob was arriving soon. And so, using my fast thinking, I made up a lie. "Yeah, he likes me so much now that he wants me to spend all my free time with him. he said we should eat lunch together and even walk home together. In fact, he's coming here now." I told her, mustering up my most innocent smile.

"Hmm, that's great. It looks like everything we've planned is going well. Keep up the good work, Arthit!" She answered cheerfully. "I better get going then to give you two lovebirds some alone time." She wiggled her eyebrows at me and I just scoffed at her with a roll of my eyes.

Did she really believe I'd fallen for Kongpob?

Or that Kongpob had fallen for me?

Pfffft, as if...

If there was something Kongpob was good at, that would be his perfect timing. He arrived as soon as Nam disappeared at the end of the hallway. "Did you wait long?" he asked as he approached me. "Or were you with someone else?"

I have no idea why I said it, but suddenly the lie was out before I could stop it. "Actually, I was with Daniel just now. I just told him to leave so you wouldn't catch us." I remarked, knowing that he'd be pissed hearing that.

But instead, his lips curved into a playful smile. "So you broke my rules on probation?" Damn, he was very happy about it suddenly, his dark chocolate eyes twinkling with mischief.

From his words and the sly look on his face, I already knew what he was up to. He was going to punish me because I broke his rule. "I was just being sarcastic." I pointed out even before he could do so. "I just told Nam I can't be with her during lunch because you want me to eat with you."

We started walking towards my locker and when we reached it, I took out my books. "Why is your locker so dirty? I think there's even a cockroach crawling underneath that junk." He commented insultingly.

I turned to him with a frown. "Yah! Even if my locker's disorganized, it doesn't mean it's dirty." I said in my defense. Then I turned back to my locker and tried to make it a bit organized. But as I did, suddenly, something crawled out from underneath one of the books. It was a cockroach and it was starting to crawl up my hand. I squealed in shock, but suddenly Kongpob grabbed my hand and swatted it away. Surprised, I turned to him accusingly, my cheeks turning red at his touch. "You placed that there, didn't you?"

He shook his head. "You're really stubborn, aren't ya? Why would I place a cockroach in your locker? Will that make me look good in front of my boyfriend? It's just god's message telling you that you should clean your locker now."

I raised my brow at him, but didn't say anything. I shut my locker and started walking away from him, faster than usual, so I could get to class as soon as possible. And in a matter of seconds, I reached my classroom and Kongpob had no choice but to leave me and go to his own class.

As the class started, I started to think deeply. There had got to be a way for me to escape from Kongpob and this stupid probation of his, at least for a day. Maybe I could pretend to be sick. But then if I did, he'd just come with me to the school clinic and flirt with the school nurse. If only there was a place where he couldn't go to.

The second the lunch bell rang, I turned to the door, only to find Kongpob already waiting for me in the hallway, leaning against the wall all posed and model-like, making all the girls and guys squeal around him. Once he saw me looking his way, he waved at me annoyingly. I turned away from him as I stood up and got my things. "See you later." I told Nam as I started walking towards where Kongpob was.

"I need to go to the bathroom." I muttered to him as soon as I was beside him.

"Let's go then." He replied simply.

"Excuse me? Y-you can't go there. It's...private!" I reminded him, just in case his brain wasn't functioning well. "Why don't you just wait for me in the cafeteria?"

He shook his head. "I'm not that dumb. I'll wait for you outside." He said as we started walking.

I opened my mouth, ready to convince him that I wouldn't escape him, but just before I could, a girl suddenly ran up to Kongpob. She was gasping for breath and it took her a few seconds before she was able to speak, "Kongpob, Michael asked me to tell you that there's an emergency meeting for all the varsity members in five minutes."

"Tell him I can't come." Kongpob replied, suddenly grabbing my hand and holding it tightly in his, interlacing our fingers. "I have to spend time with my wifey."

The girl's eyes widened and her mouth fell open in shock, but she recovered quickly and shook her head. "He said that you should definitely come."

Seeing this as an opportunity to escape him, I went along with the girl. "Come on, Kongpob, Michael wants to see you, so go. After all, you are the best player, right?" I tried to convince him with a sweet smile.

He raised his brow at me, as if seeing through my fake smile. But then he turned to the girl. "Okay then, I'm going." He said and with that, he followed her.

I waved at him happily before I turned and let out a victorious sigh.

I began walking down the hallway when I passed the bathrooms and just then, Jessica came out of the girls' bathroom.

Upon seeing me, she smirked at me, as if she was planning something evil. I ignored her and just entered the guys' bathroom. I was relieved to find all the stalls empty.

As I was doing my business, suddenly I heard the door open and Jessica's evil voice filled my ears. "I heard you're afraid of the dark, Arthit. Is it really true? Let's find out, shall we?"

And before I could answer, she turned all the lights off. The next thing I knew, I heard the door open and shut close.

Followed by the unmistakable "click" sound of a door being locked.

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