❤︎

Thinking that maybe, just maybe, I could approach Kongpob now and ask him if we could talk in private, I decided to do so. I ran after them and called for him. "Yah, Kongpob!" He didn't turn to look at me, so I grabbed his hand to stop him. "Yah, we need to talk."

But he didn't even look at me as he shook his hand away from my grip and then, he and May disappeared behind the cafeteria door, leaving me behind.

Gosh...this is a real mess now...

❤︎

Okay, so Kongpob turned his back on me without a word. But the last time he did that, it didn't turn out as bad as I'd thought. In fact, even though he was indifferent to me before, afterwards, he even asked me to be his boyfriend. So maybe this will go better than I'm afraid of? He was just being the most unexpected and unpredictable guy I knew, as always.

...

Oh, who was I kidding? This was a much different story from before. Back then, I didn't stab him in the back. He was aware that I was ruining his reputation. But this time he wasn't even the slightest aware that I had been playing him like a fool. And I didn't have the chance to explain it to him properly. I really made the worst move this time. So now...I really had to find a way to properly apologize to him and make him understand my true feelings for him. No matter what, I just had to fix this.

Going back to the cafeteria where Daniel and Michael were, I noticed an odd expression on Michael's face that I had never seen on him before. He looked really upset and confused at the same time. "Why was she suddenly so mad? Did I do anything wrong?" He was asking Daniel with a sad tone.

"Has she been like that since earlier this morning?" Daniel asked, trying to analyze the problem. He was probably looking for a way to make Michael feel better.

Michael shook his head. "No, she was fine earlier. She was even more cheerful than usual that I assumed she was like that because she knew it was my birthday and she was excited about the plans we made. But I guess I was wrong." He responded, still wondering whatever it was he did that made May so angry suddenly. "Was it wrong of me to insist that we have lunch together today?"

"Maybe she was discussing something really important with Kongpob just now so she got angry when you interrupted them." Daniel remarked, hoping he said the right words to comfort him.

But it didn't. Instead, it made it even worse. "Important? So celebrating a boyfriend's birthday isn't important?" he exclaimed. "What's more important than her boyfriend?"

Upon hearing that accusation coming from Michael, the awful pit I felt in my stomach suddenly got a whole lot worse. And before I could stop myself, my tongue slipped and spoke out exactly what I was thinking at the moment, not even considering how it would hurt Michael. "Maybe something happened with Kongpob and he wanted to talk with somebody..."

"What?!" Michael reacted with a tone that was shaky and disbelieving. Okay, this was not helping. His girlfriend had abandoned him on his birthday, he had every right to be upset.

Not wanting to upset Michael any more, I decided to not go into details of what had happened in the morning today. "Oh, nothing." I told him, faking a smile. "Don't worry too much about May. I'm sure she has a good reason to act the way she did. She never does anything without thinking deeply about it. She always considers people's feelings. She must have a really good reason for doing what she did just now."

As the three of us started heading back to our classroom for our next class, I found myself suddenly changing my mind about things. All the while, I was thinking that maybe an explanation could make things better between Kongpob and me. I mean, why wouldn't it, when he really liked me? That should even make him feel way better. But now I wasn't sure anymore. If he was so angry that he'd resort to not even giving me a chance, maybe a simple explanation wouldn't do the trick this time. He wouldn't possibly believe me that easily now, would he?

When we reached the classroom, Michael went ahead and sat down on his usual seat, still feeling down. Daniel, on the other hand, stayed with me for a moment. "Are you alright?" he asked me with deep concern.

I nodded. "Of course I am. I'm not the one who just had the worst birthday experience ever." I replied, a little sarcastically. "I just have to sit next to my ex-best friend."

"Do you want me to sit with you instead?" he offered with a concerned expression on his face.

"No, it's okay. Just sit beside Michael, he seems more depressed than I am, so just be there for him." I replied, showing him an assuring smile to convince him I was telling the truth.

And so, Daniel nodded and walked over to the seat beside Michael. I did the same, but to the seat beside the one Nam usually took. Although she hadn't arrived yet, I knew that she would come soon and sit beside me. Then we'd have an awkward moment again. And sure enough, Nam arrived after a few minutes, her face looking smug as if something really bad just happened to her. She then sat down beside me and minded her own business.

To distract myself from feeling so uncomfortable, I tried to think about what I was thinking about just before we reached the room. Daniel's words from earlier kept ringing in my mind. "I think it's going to be hard for you to explain this to him. After all, he's just as stubborn as you are. Maybe even more." And even though I wasn't planning on following his advice, now it really seemed like I had to. What I did to Kongpob was really way out of the line. He was feeling betrayed, lied to and I had to fix it as soon as possible.

'What should I do then?' I asked myself, frustration growing inside me and again, I couldn't focus on the class and kept thinking about Kongpob and the mess I had caused.

As soon as the dismissal bell rang, I rushed out of the classroom and hurried towards my locker, threw my books inside and ran home. I just wanted to take a break from it all and in a matter of 15 minutes, I arrived at home.

But as soon as I did, I immediately regretted it because I had become idle with no homework to be done and no concentration to study. From time to time, I found myself checking Kongpob's cell phone (unfortunately, he still didn't get the chance to return mine) and hoping that Kongpob would at least leave a message, even if it was just to ask me to stay away from him permanently. But of course, no message from him.

As I was about to give up by throwing his cell phone inside a drawer so I wouldn't be tempted to keep looking at it like, the phone finally started ringing. Hoping with all my heart that it was Kongpob, I quickly answered the call, afraid that he might hang up if I took longer to answer.

"Hello?" May spoke from the other end of the line. She sounded a little hesitant.

"Oh, hi May." I greeted, hiding my disappointment as I tried to sound like I normally did whenever she called. "What is it?"

There was a lot of noise from her end of the line. "Where are you? We're all in the gym right now celebrating Michael's birthday. You should be here."

Did I hear her right? Didn't she just blow up in front of Michael earlier today about his birthday? What the hell was going on? "What did you say?" I asked her, thinking I really did hear her wrong.

She seemed to have caught on to my reaction. "Kongpob didn't explain what happened earlier today, did he?" she remarked.

"What do you mean?" I asked her in clear confusion.

"What happened earlier, Arthit, was just a planned act to surprise Michael. See, he and I already made plans for his birthday a week ago. And you know me. I don't like things to be too boring. And so, I asked Kongpob to help me trick Michael." She explained hurriedly. "You didn't actually believe I'd be angry with Michael for no reason, now did you?"

Upon hearing her say that, I felt a heavy weight lifted from my chest. "So Kongpob isn't really mad at me?" I asked with a newly-found hope.

"Oh, you mean when he brushed you off earlier? It was part of the plan. We've agreed he shouldn't talk to you during the act to prevent it from being too obvious. We even asked Jessica to hold onto his cell phone, so you couldn't call him during that time." She replied, making me feel even more relieved. "I'm sorry if that made you feel bad."

"It's alright." I told her with a sigh, suddenly feeling hopeful again. Thank god, it was all just an act... Gosh, what a relief.Unfortunately, I really didn't feel like going back to school now. I was too emotionally drained from everything that had happened today and I wasn't sure I was ready to pretend to be all happy around everyone. Especially without being able to talk to Kongpob first. "But I don't think I can go there now. Please apologize to Michael from me and I'll just make it up to him tomorrow."

May didn't force me to come. She seemed to have been distracted by someone who called her in the background. "Oh okay then. See you tomorrow."

When she hung up, I instantly dialed Kongpob's phone, feeling confident that he was going to pick up this time. After all, it was all an act, wasn't it? He wasn't that mad at me. He was ready to listen to me, right? However, after three rings, he seemed to have rejected my call.

Hurriedly I tried again, but this time, he probably took out the battery or he turned the phone off because it wouldn't ring at all.

And that was when it hit me. May might have been acting, but Kongpob wasn't. He really seemed to hate me now.

And he had every right to.

❤︎

Only 2 chapters left! I'm excited for this story to come to an end and start a new one! :)