Part 46

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Then, I washed my face and took a few calming deep breaths before walking out of the bathroom.

But the moment I stepped into the hallway, I was standing face-to-face with Kongpob, holding a precious and very familiar-looking figurine in his hands.

My heart skipped a beat.

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When I was a child, I had always been very close with my grandmother. She was my playmate whenever my parents would leave me to her care. We would play with various toys and sometimes even play hide-and-seek. She was my best friend growing up.

However, when I turned seven, she suddenly got sick, which caused her body to become paralyzed. And of course, after that day, we couldn't play together anymore.

A week before my grandmother died, my parents brought me to her hospital room. She asked me to come to her bedside. Then, she instructed me to turn towards the bedside table. When I did, I saw this beautiful angel figurine standing on it. She told me that it was mine, that it was something she wanted me to have to remember her by. At that time, I didn't know she was going to die soon, so I felt extremely happy instead of sad. But after her death, I realized the true message in her words and held onto the porcelain figurine more dearly.

So how did Kongpob get hold of it? Well, since it became one of my most treasured possessions, on the day our teacher asked us to bring the most important thing to us for show and tell its story, I was silly enough to take it to school. I was still young, in 4th grade, so I was naive and didn't think it through. As I took it to school, I made sure to keep it extra safe in small bag, so that it wouldn't break.

That was until after I stood in front and told my classmates about my grandmother's death and how important the figurine was to me. As I walked back to my seat after a round of applause from my classmates, Kongpob reached for the figurine and took it from my hands. "Can I borrow it?" he remarked too late for me to react as he snatched it from my hands.

Used to his stubborn attitude, I decided to lend it to him. I thought that Kongpob couldn't possibly be so mean as to break it. But when I sat down, another classmate of ours who sat three seats behind me suddenly stood up and walked towards the front. As he did, he bumped accidentally into Kongpob's chair, causing Kongpob to fall over and drop the figurine on the floor, shattering it into tiny pieces.

Even though it was clearly not Kongpob's fault, I felt utmost rage towards him. I glared at him as painful tears formed in my eyes and I couldn't stop myself from crying my heart out as I fell down to my knees to stare at the broken pieces in utmost dismay.

In turn, Kongpob looked at me with apologetic eyes, repeating the words "Sorry, I'm so sorry" all over again. That day, teacher scolded me for bringing something so precious to school when I was aware of the fact that it might get broken. But she didn't say anything bad to Kongpob (talk about favoritism).

For weeks, I ignored Kongpob's presence in my class. I felt hurt every time I saw him. But Kongpob didn't give up on bothering me. He always followed me around, every day, no matter where I went and just kept saying "sorry" over and over again.

After a while, I calmed down and started to accept the fact that it wasn't Kongpob's fault. That didn't mean I became friendly towards him, because I never was. I just treated him the way I did before the incident happened. With hate, and we went back to fighting and bickering each other every day up until now.

And as for the figurine, I somewhat forgot about it over the years.

But now, as I stared at it sitting in Kongpob's gentle hands, I couldn't help but feel utmost joy and gratitude overwhelm me.

"I-is that what I think it is?" I asked in utter disbelief, my eyes starting to water as I remembered my grandmother and her present once again. "...H-how did you manage to fix it?"

I didn't even know that he had cleaned up the mess after I had ran out of the classroom and kept all the broken pieces all these years!

He smiled proudly, eyes twinkling with happiness. "You think I'm awesome now, don't you?" he said softly, handing it to me. "It's my birthday present to you. Sorry it took me so long to fix it."

Suddenly, I realized that all those birthday notes he gave me all these years were not a simple joke after all. He must've been putting the pieces back together one by one, so he could give the figurine back to me in the exact way it was before.

And although I hated to admit it, the thought and effort he put into this really made my heart flutter...No one had ever done anything this sweet to me before, and I never expected him, of all people, to be the first one to move me so.

And it made me feel even more guilty to think that he was always teasing me by giving me "empty" presents. Damn you, Kongpob!

"You're such a fool, you know that? You could have just told me you were doing this, instead of giving me those stupid notes." I remarked with a scoff, tears streaming down my cheeks as I caressed the smooth surface of the figurine that felt new despite the tiny crack marks around it.

"If I told you then, you'd only tell me to forget it. That I'd never be able to piece it back together, am I right?" he remarked with a knowing tone. "What happened then, this figurine, it was my mistake. I'm really sorry for it. But look at it now. I fixed it. Every mistake a person makes, he can fix it over time. So don't worry about my mistake with Nam anymore, I'll fix that too."

From what he said, I already believed that he knew that all of this was just my way of getting my revenge on him. But before I could speak to deny the truth, Kongpob's phone suddenly started vibrating in my pocket, ruining the moment completely. I took the cell phone out and answered. "Hello?"

"Arthit, have you called Kongpob yet? I've been keeping our teacher inside the classroom, but she seems like she'll be leaving soon." Joss spoke on the other hand.

I suddenly remembered the situation I was in just before I saw Kongpob. "He's already here. I'll ask him to go there now." I answered him quickly, then I hung up and turned to Kongpob. "That was Joss. He wants you to go to your classroom now and ask your teacher to give you a second chance to take the exam you missed earlier today."

Upon hearing that, he turned and started walking towards the direction of his classroom. And since I was feeling partly responsible for him missing his exam (even though it wasn't me who said he should be absent today, I just told him not to show up in front of me), I followed him.

"Why are you following me?" He asked, raising an brow as he turned to me.

Embarrassed to say I was worried for him, my cheeks turned red immediately. "Because I was the one Joss asked to bring you." I replied with a smooth lie. Smooth...or that's what I thought.

As always, Kongpob saw right through me.

"You're worried about me, aren't you?" He suddenly turned back to his teasing self, his lips twisted into a smirk. "I knew it. you must really like me even more now that you found out all the trouble I went through to fix your figurine, don't you?"

"Isn't it the other way around? You like me so much that you fixed this figurine, so I'd feel happy." I shot back at him, returning his smirk and watched as his eyes twinkled at my response. Gosh, he really was handsome when smiling so wide and happy like that. And he didn't smile like that very often.

In fact...as much as I remembered and saw him around others, even around Nam, he never smiled whole-heartedly. He smiled like that only to...me.

By this time, we had already reached his classroom. "Go on and enter now."

Kongpob nodded and entered the classroom. And once he did, I anxiously watched through the glass window of the door to see what was happening inside. When the teacher saw Kongpob, her face showed clear worry as she started speaking to him. He remained calm, with his infamous smile on his face as he listened to what the teacher was telling him. And it really seemed like everything was going to work out fine until Kongpob's eyes turned to me then turned back to the teacher. Suddenly, the teacher frowned as Kongpob leaned closer to her and told her something.

I didn't like that mischievous look in Kongpob's eyes when he looked at me... Could it be he was putting the blame on me again?

Soon, the teacher moved towards the door and walked out saying, "I'm sorry but this time, I can't help you with the exam you missed, Kongpob. You should've thought of the consequences before you did what you did when your classmates were taking the exam." And after that, she left.

As I watched her walk away, Kongpob and Joss walked out of the room with disappointed frowns on their faces. I stayed behind the corner, so they wouldn't see me, but I was still close enough to hear their conversation.

"Why did you not come when I called you? I told you it was an important exam that you couldn't miss, didn't I?" Joss reprimanded Kongpob in frustration.

"I had to do something for Arthit and the last finishing touches took me all morning to finish. It's his birthday today. And besides, our teacher's not usually that stingy. She even gave one of our classmates who cut class another chance before." Kongpob answered in defense.

Joss shook his head. "You could've just given your gift to Arthit after the test. Now you're going to fail this class." He remarked with a sigh.

Hearing them discussing glumly, I suddenly felt disheartened. I was the one who had caused this problem for Kongpob. He had been preparing the most important gift to me and missed his exam. Unconsciously done, but still, I felt responsible for him. Kongpob was going to fail because of doing something so thoughtful and sweet to me.

And the thought of that actually triggered my guilt more than I expected.

Wanting to make things right, I turned around the corner and pushed past the two of them, heading towards the direction I saw the teacher go to just a few minutes ago, determined to talk with her and set things right. I ran as fast as I could so that I could catch up with her. And when I finally did, I stood in front of her so she couldn't continue walking.

"Ma'am, I know that this isn't the proper way of doing this, but I'm feeling really hopeless. Please give Kongpob another chance to take the exam. I know that he was being irresponsible by not showing up for the exam when he should have, but please give him another chance." I began to beg her, pleading with my eyes, my face, my whole body.

Her face remained unreadable, I couldn't tell if she was annoyed with me or not. But still, I continued. "The truth is, his absence, it's not entirely because of him. It's also because of me. So if you can't give him another chance, then please tell my teacher to disregard my exam too."

Honestly speaking, I would never say anything like that, even if it was Nam needing help. But for some reason, my conscience was telling me to make things right for Kongpob no matter what and the words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them.

All of a sudden, the teacher smiled at me. You're Arthit, am I right?" she asked me warmly. I nodded at her in response. "The truth is, I already approved Kongpob's plea for a second chance. But he asked me not to let you know and play along, so he could see your reaction."

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WHAT???

Hearing her say that, I suddenly felt really angry at Kongpob.

I excused myself from the teacher and rushed back to where Kongpob was, ready to attack him.

I saw him and Joss laughing at the end of the hallway, having eavesdropped my whole conversation with the teacher. Even the teacher played along with him! Ugh, I'm gonna teach that brat!!!

"Yah! You think this is funny? You enjoy making a fool out of me?" I shouted at him angrily.

For some reason, I was feeling so angered, unfairly treated and hurt that my eyes started getting teary and my voice quivered as tears spilled from my eyes. "Why are you always so mean to me? If you hate me so much, why did you ask me to be your boyfriend in the first place?"

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Author's note: One of my favorite chapters so far. Kongpob's birthday gift to Arthit is so damn special...