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OHM

Fluke's story was shocking. I never thought he had been through a lot. I was actually expecting for him to tell me about that 'bastard' P' Liza and P' New mentioned yesterday, but what I got was about his first love.

I somehow couldn't imagine myself in his situation, his parents died when he was still very young, then his bestfriend - slash - first love, also died without him even knowing. It must have been too much for him to handle at that time. And there were more. Maybe the time when his grandmother died, and that 'bastard' story would be next.

I was preparing myself already to control my anger once I knew about that part of his life.

I saw Fluke leaning his head at the backrest of his seat, eyes closed, when I got back from the kitchen.

"Fluke. . ." He opened his eyes and looked at me. "Drink water, first." I told him as I sat next to him.

"Thank you." He said as he took a sip.

"Are you alright?"

He just nodded his head and smiled a little "I guess so. Tired, but I'm okay."

"Why don't you take a rest now?"

He shook his head, "No. I have to finish it now."

"It's okay, Fluke. I don't want you to get even more tired. Recalling memories especially the sad ones is draining." I was really worried about him. When I told myself I wanted to get to know him more, I didn't mean I wanted to know everything in just one go.

"I still have a lot to tell you." He looked really determined this time. "Just like what you said when you told me about your feelings, you might not have a chance again. I'm doing the same, Ohm. We're both busy, and I might not have a chance to tell you about me."

"I understand, but I really hope this would not be the last time we would see each other, though."

I heard him chuckle a little. "You really didn't want to let it go, huh?"

"Nope." I was glad that I could lighten up the mood after all the crying a while ago. "Are you sure you want to continue?" He said 'yes', so I let him.

"When I entered university, I actually never expected to meet someone that would be like my Piyapon, but New and Liza came. You know, Piyapon was the only friend I had, we were always together, and we just hung out here, so I didn't know how to interact with people. New and Liza were my seniors, our faculty had this kind of initiation for freshmen, to be the helpers - slash - slaves for their seniors for a year. Since they were already graduating, they had too many things to do, so they needed some help. I was assigned to Liza. The funny thing about it was, I did not become her helper nor slave. She said that I was too cute and adorable to be her slave, so everything that she needed to do, especially the hard ones, she asked New to do them. New would gladly do what she said, since he was so much in love with her. There were times that he even asked his assigned freshman to do them, and I felt bad for the guy."

I smiled at him as I imagined what he was saying. I wanted to tell him that I agreed with P' Liza about him being too cute and adorable to be a slave, but I stopped myself, for I didn't want him to feel uncomfortable.

"Since then, they never let me feel alone. We became even closer when they knew about my story, about my parents and about Piyapon. They became our regular guests here at home. My grandma was so delighted that I had met them. She was worried about me after Piyapon's death. So when I introduced them to her, she was so happy that she wanted them to always visit us here. Grandma even threw them a special dinner when they graduated and to celebrate their union as a married couple. They got married a month after their graduation. They became a bit busy, though, when they both had their jobs. It was okay for me 'cause I was busy with my studies as well and I focused on getting my grades better."

I looked at him as he took a deep breath. I was guessing the next might be a bad one. I held his hand and caressed the back of it with my thumb.

"Then I met Mark on my second year in university. He was a transferee that time. He approached me when we needed to pair up for a project in one of our subjects. And since I was too shy to ask others, I just agreed to be his partner. As days went by we became closer. While doing our project, we got to know each other. We paired to a few more school projects, so we almost spent our free time together. I didn't expect myself to be close to others aside from Liza and New, but he always made me feel safe and special whenever we were together. He then asked me to be his boyfriend before the first semester ended. He told me that he fell in love with me when he got to know me more as we spent time together. I actually felt the same, but I didn't give him an answer yet. I told him that I had feelings for him too, but I wanted to be sure about it, since that would be my first relationship if ever. I introduced him to my best friends, but Liza bluntly said that she didn't like him. She told me that she didn't feel good about the man, that she had an aura of being a player." He then let out a deep sigh. "I didn't listen to her. I just thought that it was too harsh of her to say those even though she didn't know the man yet. I was actually a bit sad about her attitude towards, Mark, that I didn't talk to her for couple of weeks."

"I think P' Liza is a kind of person that can really tell exactly what kind of person she meets." I commented.

"Uh. . .huh. . . She's really good at that. She never fails with her judgments. It turned out that she was true about what she said about Mark." He said. "On the second semester, we had different classes. We spent time together, though, and he never let me feel we were apart, he messaged or called me when we were not together. He was very attentive as a boyfriend, we went on dates and hung out to his apartment. We did what a normal couple do, but we did not go beyond kissing. I was still afraid. There were a few times that he lost control and just wanted to continue further, but I didn't feel it was the right time and stopped him. He was disappointed of course, but he told me he understood. I felt sorry about it, but he assured me that it was okay. I thought I had a very understanding boyfriend then, so I fell even more to him. I knew he had needs too, but I still couldn't feel that I was ready to give myself to him." He continued. "He never changed after that, he was still the same boyfriend I had, very sweet and loving in my eyes. He never showed anything that would make me feel unsecure about our relationship. He was there with me when grandma got sick and was hospitalized. He comforted me when I was so sad. He stayed with me so I wouldn't feel alone."

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