❤︎

And then, as if all the fear had been washed away, I knew exactly what I wanted to say to Kongpob. "H-hello everyone. I'm so sorry for putting a pause to the party, but I really need to say something. Since Kongpob Suthiluck has been avoiding me for the past few days, I have no choice but to talk to him like this. Look, Kongpob, I know you're avoiding me. And I don't blame you at all. You must be feeling really mad and betrayed right now, and I'm really really sorry for hurting you, but you have to know something. It's true, I did fool you in the beginning. I planned to be your boyfriend in order to take revenge on you for what you did to Nam. But when you told me you didn't really mean to play with her feelings, my reason for being your boyfriend changed over time and I didn't want to fool you anymore. I was enjoying spending time with you and I...I realized something I have been feeling for a really really long time now. Kongpob Suthiluck, I like..."

But before I could finish, the doors of the gym suddenly slammed opened.

And there he was, Kongpob Suthiluck, standing in the doorway with a clueless expression.

❤︎

Ever since I was a child, I had always hated being the center of attraction. I remembered once in middle school, I was supposed to receive a medal for doing so well in academics, but because I had to go up on the stage to receive it, I just decided not to accept it. The feeling of having every single eye in the room watching you as you do something just didn't make me feel comfortable. I always felt like passing out or crying.

Yet here I was, standing on stage in front of everyone in school, shaking and pouring my heart out to someone, only to find out that the sacrifice I had made was worthless after all.

The emotionless and somewhat cold look on Kongpob's face rendered me speechless and all my thoughts just flew out the window. I had no idea if he had heard anything what I had just said since he just entered the gym and I panicked. I had just made a complete fool of myself and Kongpob probably didn't hear a word.

The fear of collapsing on stage was too much to bear, so not even bothering to finish my sentence, I turned around and left the microphone on the podium, before running out of there as quickly as I could, ignoring many people who were either about to laugh at me or who were looking at me sympathetically.

I even passed Kongpob, before I was able to leave the gym, my heart thumping wildly. But as I was heading towards the bathroom, I suddenly heard footsteps behind me, somebody trying to catch up with me. For a moment I actually thought that Kongpob Suhtiluck was the one following me. But when I turned to see who it was, my heart beating a mile a minute, I saw Nam instead of Kongpob trying to catch up with me.

Though I was not in the mood to talk to her, I stopped and faced her with a hardened expression. "What do you want?" I asked her angrily. I guessed because of my humiliation, my anger towards her magnified, knowing that if she hadn't betrayed me, I wouldn't have gone through all of this.

Being Nam's best friend I knew for a fact that when someone talked to her the way I just did, she would definitely shoot back with a painful remark. But to my surprise, she was apologetic instead. "Look, Arthit, I know you're still angry at me. And I know I shouldn't be talking to you just yet, but I don't want us to fight like this." She remarked with a sincere expression that I couldn't help but let my guard down a little. "I think you should go back to the gym and talk to Kongpob."

Upon hearing her say that, I suddenly regretted softening up a little. She was obviously fooling around with me again. "Funny you should say that after you ruined things between us." I snapped at her, hoping it would hurt her enough to just leave me alone, because I wanted, no, needed some time alone in the bathroom to cry my humiliation away.

"I know that I hurt you by saying those things to Kongpob and I'm sorry for that. But you know what? I'm not sorry for doing it, because it was the one thing I needed to do to free myself from Kongpob. And at first, I was thinking, was the price for it really worth more than it should? But after a while, I was certain that it wasn't worth it after all." She spoke hurriedly, not making much sense.

I let out a scoff. "Oh, so it's worth losing your best friend over getting over a bad relationship?" I exclaimed at her angrily. I couldn't believe she'd choose this moment to say that to me. It was already a bad evening for me and yet she had to make it worse. "If that's all you have to say, then I'm leaving."

"No, wait, that's not what I meant, Arthit. I'm not saying I didn't feel bad when I lost your friendship. I did, and I've been trying to think of ways to make things right between the two of us. But I knew that eventually, we'll go back to the way we were before." She replied hurriedly. "But what I'm trying to say is, I thought I was only doing it for myself, but in reality, I wasn't. Remember the day before I did it? I asked you if you loved him. But you kept insisting it wasn't that deep yet. And now that I've realized it, I think it triggered me even more to do it, knowing that I could help you to see how you really feel."

"What are you talking about?" I asked her, feeling more confused than before. Was she telling me she ruined my relationship with Kongpob for me to realize I loved him? That's ridiculous.

Seeing that I calmed down a little, she gave me a smile. "Don't you see, Arthit? If I didn't do what I did, you wouldn't have the courage to stand on stage today and admit that you really have feelings for Kongpob." She remarked in a hopeful tone, probably hoping I would see it the way she did.

And I did see what she was getting at. It was true that when I learned that Kongpob was mad at me, I started to realize my feelings for him. Why else would I go through all this trouble if I didn't? And if I didn't really love him, why did I miss him these couple of days when I couldn't see him? But what good was my realization when Kongpob would probably never believe me? "So what if I found out I do love him? And yeah, I did something I would never have done normally. But what did it matter? He didn't hear it!" I let out, more frustrated than angry now.

"That's why you have to go back and talk to him again." she answered encouragingly.

I shook my head. "I'd only make a bigger fool of myself if I went back in there and be a laughing stock of everyone inside." I said, feeling pessimistic. "He wouldn't talk with me anyway, he's been avoiding me for days."

"Arthit, you've gone this far. What else would you lose if you try once more?" She pointed out. She must've noticed me looking at her accusingly, blaming her for the situation I was in right now. "Not that I'm defending myself or anything, but you know, even if I didn't say it to Kongpob, the truth would still be out eventually. So if you're not listening to me because you hate me, I'm telling you, you should trust me this once."

I didn't speak for a moment. I just looked at her, debating with myself on whether to listen to her or not. But I really didn't have much to debate upon, because it was pretty obvious that Nam was right this time. I needed to talk with Kongpob, it was the only way to fix this. No matter how damn embarrassing it was going to be. "Why do you want to help me all of a sudden?" I asked her suspiciously.

"I told you. I did it to get over Kongpob, and not to hurt you. Now that I'm over him, I don't care who he goes out with. The only thing I care about is how to make it up to you. And I can only do this by helping you get back with him." She answered convincingly.

"Fine," I replied, satisfied with her answer. "I will talk to him. But I need to go to the bathroom first." To cry my heart out first.

Her face lit up from hearing that, as if I just told her she won the lottery. "Great! I'll go back to the gym and stop Kongpob from going anywhere until you arrive." She remarked with a friendly smile.

Nodding in reply, I opened my mouth to say something. Nam had already turned around and was walking away from me. "Hey Nam," I called out. She turned to face me. "Thanks."

She smiled sincerely at that. "Don't thank me just yet. Thank me when you and Kongpob work this out." She said before she turned again and continued walking towards the gym.

Having a new-found confidence inside me, I entered the shared bathroom near the gym and washed my face. As I turned the faucet off, the door of one of the stalls opened, revealing Jessica. I just minded my own business as she walked over to my side and opened the faucet next to the one I was turning off. We were both silent, only the sound of water could be heard, and I tried hard not to cry. Damnit, I really wanted to cry now.

"Nice speech." She suddenly spoke, breaking our silence.

Knowing that she couldn't possibly be complimenting me, I just ignored her snappy comment. I knew that she was just trying to rub it in my face how embarrassing I was when I stood on the stage earlier. "See you around." I just told her, heading for the exit.

"I really meant what I just said, you know." She spoke again as I grabbed for the doorknob. "I guess I was wrong when I said you weren't serious about Kongpob. I don't think I would be able to do something like that for him."

...Did Jessica just compliment me? "Thanks for that." I replied weakly, not looking at her, just in case she was just playing with me. I was satisfied with just hearing her say that. Maybe Jessica really had a kind side to her after all.

"But don't think I wouldn't be here if you try to hurt him again, because I'll always be here to protect him." She continued as she turned off the faucet and walked towards me. She then placed her hand on the doorknob I was holding and brushed my hand off. "You got that?" she finished with, surprisingly, a smile before she finally left.

Walking out of the bathroom, I headed towards the gym without a moment to waste. When I got there, Nam immediately approached me. "Kongpob's talking to Joss right now, but that's only a stalling technique. Go ahead and cut their conversation short." She told me in a whisper as she pointed towards Kongpob and Joss. "Good luck."

I nodded at her and started walking towards Kongpob. It was strange, but I felt much more nervous right now as compared to standing on the stage before. My knees felt weak, I could almost hear my heart beating crazily, and I was sweating even though the gym was air-conditioned.

I decided that in order to get Kongpob's attention, I was going to tap him on his left shoulder. But before I could, he turned to his right and started walking away from me, without seeing me. Panicking because I thought he was going to avoid me again, I shouted at the top of my lungs to call for his attention, "Kongpob Suthiluck!!!"

Honestly speaking, I did expect some people to look toward me upon doing what I did. What I didn't expect was everyone turning towards me with big interest and the music to stop playing again. 'Was my shouting really that loud?' I couldn't help thinking as I found myself lost for words for a moment.

Kongpob had turned and was looking at me too, with the same clueless expression on his face as he had earlier. And that made me even more insecure and speechless.

When I finally got hold of myself, I smiled at everyone and apologized for disturbing the party once again. "S-sorry for putting a pause to the party again. I just need to talk to Kongpob." I remarked, rushing to Kongpob and grabbing his hand. "But don't worry, this time, we'll do it privately outside."

And with that, I dragged Kongpob outside the gym. When we got to the empty hallway, he still looked at me clueless.

"What's going on?" he asked me with a raised eyebrow.

"As if you don't know." I remarked with a pout, annoyed that he was pretending to be innocent. I mean, I felt bad enough when he had avoided me for the past few days. And now, he was rubbing it in my face. "I know you have the right to act the way you've been acting ever since you found out the truth. But at least give me a chance to explain. I'm really sorry, Kongpob...I know I've really messed up when I agreed to be your boyfriend just to take revenge on you, when there isn't really anything to take revenge on. However, you never told me that you didn't play with Nam's affections. Instead, you kept leading me to believe that you really did. And so, as a friend, I tried to do Nam justice. But after you told me the truth, I've changed. My feelings for you have changed and I-I found myself being your boyfriend not because of revenge, but because...I wanted to you...Kongpob, I've fallen for you." I finished in a hurry, my eyes fixed on Kongpob's blank face, and feeling the deep blush rise in my cheeks with every second of silence that passed between us.

After my confession, I imagined two scenarios in my mind that could possibly happen after pouring my heart out to Kongpob. One would be him suddenly smiling brightly at me the way he usually did, and telling me it was about time I told him that I liked him and that he forgave me for deceiving him. The other one was him looking extremely mad at me, telling me he still wasn't ready to forgive me, because I was such a hypocrite and that I had really stooped low this time.

But guess what? As always, Kongpob never failed to surprise me. He was looking at me in silence, still with the naive expression he had earlier, blinking at me a couple of times. "Are you telling me this because you're moving away somewhere?" he asked in a loud voice, as if nothing bad had happened between us.

What? What is this ridiculous question?

It took me a while to comprehend his words. But after a moment, I finally realized it. He wasn't accepting my apology after all. He was just acting this way because it was better to make fun of me, so I wouldn't be too hurt by his rejection. "You know what? I think it's better to just tell me straight that you don't want to be with me anymore rather than acting this way. But I guess I deserve it, huh?" I spoke angrily as tears filled my eyes. So this is what making fun of by someone you like really feels like huh?

I turned and started walking away, wiping the tears off my cheeks. Damn Arthit, you really got a taste of your own medicine this time.

"You're really dense, Arthit Rojnapat!" Kongpob suddenly called after me, making me stop in my tracks. I heard him walking towards me until he was standing in front of me and for the first time I saw softness in his eyes. "Did I tell you that we should break up?"

I shook my head, still weeping.

"Then where did you get the idea of me not wanting to be with you anymore?" he continued seriously. I opened my mouth to reply, but he interrupted me by speaking again. "And who said I was avoiding you? I've been absent from school, because I caught the flu."

He was absent? He was sick??? So that explained why he was nowhere to be found these past few days. But he could've called me! "Then why didn't you answer any of my calls or even try to call me back?" I asked him in between my sobs, pouting.

"My brother had my cell phone while I was sick. He borrowed it." He answered with no hesitation, looking quite apologetic in that moment. He closed the gap between us and raised his hands to wipe the tears off my cheeks. His touch was so warm and gentle.

Upon hearing that, I suddenly felt so stupid for overreacting like this. Daniel was right after all. I had just been jumping into conclusions without really knowing what Kongpob was thinking or feeling. "So you aren't mad at me for what Nam told you?" I asked hesitantly, sniffling my runny nose.

"I did feel betrayed at first, but I also believed in how I feel about you and hoped that when you had confessed to me, you were sincere about that. I am not ready to give up on us so easily, Arthit." He spoke with a confident tone and my blush only deepened. Gosh, I had really overreacted without thinking. No matter what, Kongpob had chosen to believe in me and I couldn't have been happier.

But then, he spoke again, "Wait, was that why you were serenading on the stage to me? Because you thought I wanted to break up with you?" He asked me, suddenly revealing his teasing smile and I knew immediately all was well again.

0_0 OMG!

So he did hear me confess to him!!?? That sneaky bastard was just pretending to be clueless!

A deep blush coated my cheeks and I turned my eyes to the floor. "Hey, I wasn't singing~ I just... thought you were mad so I tried to explain my feelings to you." I said in a small voice, feeling embarrassed all over again. But then I found a way to turn the tables around. "But most importantly, you just broke your own rule! You didn't talk to me for three and a half days. You should get a punishment for that." I remarked with a wink.

He raised a brow at me, his lips dancing with a teasing smile as he smiled at me slyly. "Oh yeah? Then what's my punishment?"

"A kiss." I responded firmly, before taking the last tiny step that separated us, so that Kongpob's hot breath ghosted over my face with our lips only inches apart. "Since you broke your rule, I will break mine too." I whispered, suddenly feeling oddly breathless and giddy inside.

And then, just like I'd ordered him to, Kongpob pulled me closer by my waist with one hand and supported the back of my head with the other, and finally, kissed me long and hard, effectively taking my breath away in the process. I closed my eyes and relished in the hot feeling that consumed my body and sweet taste that was uniquely Kongpob's as I pressed closer to his body and melted in his arms.

Never in my dreams had I thought that my enemy, Kongpob Suthiluck, the person I was so certain I'd hated all these years, would be the very person I wanted to give my first kiss to, but as soon as our lips touched and immense happiness and content consumed my heart, it felt just right.

All was exactly how it was supposed to be and I was pretty sure I had been secretly in love with Kongpob for all these years. Just like he had loved me and taken care of me in his own, uniquely odd way.

And when my arms twined around Kongpob's neck and I slid my tongue into his mouth, a satisfied moan escaped from Kongpob's lips and...everything was absolutely perfect.

Because I, Arthit Rojnapat, had lost the war against one of the hottest guys in school, Kongpob Suthiluck.

And won his heart instead.

❤︎

Every year, the whole school gets together to vote for the best couples of the year. And this year is no different. After everyone in school has voted in this event, the results are finally in. This year, a lot of new couples have emerged, and some of the old ones have broken up. But nevertheless, there are a few couples that stand out from the rest.

For the past two years in a row, the cheerleading captain Lily and swimming team captain Jason had been holding the top spot. Both popular and extremely good in sports, it's no wonder they have been claiming the 1st place with their strong love for each other.