NORTHHOWMUCHISYOURLOVE, Chapter 8 part 1
Chapter 8: Last Night & Ice Green Tea
Last Night
22:37 PM
I threw my phone onto the table in frustration after seeing the chat marked as read but with no reply. The music, the atmosphere of the place, people talking, everything was quite familiar, yet it was unusual for me to come here feeling like this.
“Have you ordered yet?” Arthit’s voice rang out before he sat down opposite me, followed by Hill who walked around the table to sit beside him.
“Not yet, order now.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Just arrived.”
“Why did you call us here?” Hill asked.
“I’m bored.” I replied, because I didn’t know how to handle this feeling, so I decided to call them to come hang out at the cafe with me. Only Tonfah is missing; he’s probably buried in his books by now.
“Do you really think we’d believe that?” Hill raised an eyebrow.
“I thought I could trick you.”
“Trick us, huh?”
“You ask too many questions right after arriving, want to order something to eat first?” I said, reaching for the menu and waving for a waiter, “Arthit, you order.” And I handed the menu to the person sitting opposite me.
“What do you guys want to eat?”
“Whatever you want, Hill, you order too.” I turned to tell the person next to him, who seemed uninterested in my words.
“Anything is fine, up to you.” “Okay, sure.” Then Arthit ordered a variety of dishes. Well, even though I wasn’t really in the mood to eat, just sitting here idly wouldn’t do.
“So, what’s the conclusion?” Hill persisted with the same question, making me have to turn and give him an annoyed look.
“I told you, I’m just bored.”
“Yeah, if you don’t tell me, it’s your business.”
“Yeah, that’s right, it’s my business.” I said.
“What’s going on?” Arthit looked slightly puzzled, but I didn’t reply. I wasn’t in the mood to say anything, so I just looked back at my phone screen.
Johan: Where are you?
North♣: Outside.
Johan:?
North♣: Went out.
Johan: With whom?
North♣: With a friend.
Johan: At 8 PM?
Johan: Where?
Johan: Not answering me?
North♣: Please calm down, T^T
Johan: So, where are you?
(Read)
Sneaked off to work…
Thought I wouldn’t know?
I knew from the moment he said he went outside.
He had thought about sneaking off to do some part-time work. His sour face was a clear sign. At first, it was just a guess, but when I replied I was outside and then went silent, that confirmed it. And the restaurant…does he think it’s hard to find? It’s so obvious with the waiter uniform.
For heaven’s sake…
Why is he this annoying?
“Joe, what’s your problem?”
“What?” I replied, annoyed.
“I’m asking, what the hell is wrong?”
“Nothing. You too, why ask? It’s nothing.” I answered the person sitting opposite me. Why do these two have to ask so many questions?
“Your face looks like you’ve got a problem.”
“What’s wrong with my face?”
“Annoying.” Hill interjected, looking up from his phone at me, “Your face looks annoying.”
“Yeah, what’s got you so irritated, and then you drag us out here?”
“Just to have company.” I furrowed my brows at Arthit, “Is that not okay?”
“If it wasn’t okay, I wouldn’t be here, but what’s got you so irritated? Normally, if you’re in a bad mood, you don’t come to places like this.”
“It’s just frustrating. I don’t know what to do.”
“Really, what’s frustrating you?”
“You want to know that badly?”
“Just asking.”
“I don’t know.” I said before letting out a small sigh, “Do you like people who lie?”
“Who would like that?”
“Hmm.”
“Who lied to you?” Arthit raised his eyebrows in surprise, taking the beer glass the waiter brought and sliding it towards us. I took it and sipped a little. “…”
“Here’s the thing. Is this the first time someone has lied to you? You’ve flirted with so many people. You lie to them, they lie to you, and you always knew. You never seemed to care.”
“Is it like what I thought?” Hill suddenly chimed in.
“Probably. You’re good at guessing.” I said before taking another gulp of my beer.
“Oh, then that’s settled. No need to squeeze anything out of it.”
“Why?”
“That’s all you can do.” Hill turned to tell Arthit, “Let it go, let’s go. He can’t answer anything right now anyway.”
“Yeah, just let me be.” I said, irritated.
“And how did you know he was lying?” Hill continued asking.
“I saw it.”
“Saw?”
“Yeah.”
“How?”
“Passed by in the car.”
“Or did you deliberately take a detour?” Hill said.
“…”
“It’s my business.”
“Always like this when you can’t answer.” Hill said before turning his attention back to chatting with his partner, still talking with his girlfriend even when he’s out with friends, it’s damn annoying.
If you ask me what I dislike about Hill, I’d say one thing: I hate that he knows too much about me, and it seems like he knows more every day.
“Hill, do you know?” Athit raised his eyebrows in question. “I know everything.” “Know everything, my ass.” I cursed without bothering to look over. “It’s not hard to guess, I already knew a bit.” “Yeah.”
“Are you going to stay silent like this?” After about ten minutes, Arthit was talking to someone who came over, and before that person left, possibly noticing how quiet our table had become, he asked, “Going home, asshole?”
“Just got here.” I said.
“But I want to go back.” Hill said.
“No way.”
“Chasing after your husband?”
“Fuck off.” I retorted, turning to curse. Yeah…that’s another thing I hate about Hill, the way he teases about guys hitting on him. It was fun to tease Hill about this, but right now, I’m not in the mood to listen to this.
“Um…sorry to interrupt.” I turned towards the voice of a woman who was now standing by our table.
“Yes?”
“Like…can I have your LINE ID? My friend likes you.” I couldn’t help but give her a slight smile, and she responded with a shy smile. Honestly, she’s quite cute. And this kind of situation isn’t all that surprising; it happens to me all the time.
“No, you can’t.” Hill quickly responded, causing me to whip my head towards him. Hill shot me a disapproving look before I let out another sigh.
“Uh…no, sorry.” I answered with a smile. She looked slightly disappointed, gave a forced smile, and then walked away.
“You two are acting like a married couple.” Arthit commented with surprise, “Is this what people call jealousy?” “Is that your mouth or something that wants to connect with the heel of my foot?” I snapped back at him.
“And why not? Normally, you’re almost giving your number to girls.” The person across from me still looked perplexed. Fair enough, but I really didn’t feel like explaining.
“The tiger’s about to shed its claws.” Hill said.
“Really…what does that mean?” Arthit raised his eyebrows, “Explain.”
“It’s hard to explain.” I said.
“You make it hard.”
“…”
“Yeah.”
“Annoying.” Hill said with slight irritation. Honestly, recently, things between me and Hill have been like this almost constantly. Even though we’re not exactly fighting, “You never say anything. He must be sitting inside or something.”
“Hill, calm down.” Arthit advised.
“I’m calm.”
“Tell me what’s going on.”
“Do you want me to talk?” Hill asked. I sighed before nodding. Alright, they’re going to find out eventually anyway.
“Oh…so that’s how it is.”
“Surprised?” I raised an eyebrow to ask.
“Yeah, but not shocked. So, it’s the junior who lied, and that’s why you’re irritated with your friends like this?”
“Hmm, something like that.”
“Don’t you realize?”
“Realize what?”
“That you’re super worried about your junior.” “…” “Yeah, tell him, I’m tired of it.” “Do you admit it, Joe?” “…”
“Yeah.”
“And what did the junior lie about?”
“He snuck off to do part-time work.”
“Just that?”
“Just that, why?”
“It’s not a big deal, right? Why don’t you let him go?” Arthit asked, surprised. I couldn’t help but frown at him, “He’s just earning money to pay you back.”
“That’s a bar!”
“Oh, and then what?”
“And then what?” I repeated, not understanding.
“Yeah, so what?”
“Bastard. I won’t talk to you anymore.” I said, cutting him off in irritation.
“Worry, you asshole, worry. It’s hard for you to say you’re worried, you lie to others that you’re worried when you’re not.” Hill chimed in, “Worried or not, you’ve probably had someone watching him already.”
“How did you figure it out?” I turned to ask Hill.
“With a face like yours, I bet you’ve got the whole army watching over your little junior at the Soul Out bar. If anyone tries anything funny, that person you have there will deal with them right away. And switch with someone else to watch over him on different days so it’s not suspicious.”
“You know everything about me.” I said. That’s why…that’s the reason I dislike this about him, he’s good at guessing, knows everything. “Which army? Oh, the underlings of your dad, are you some kind of mafia or what?”
“Do you admit you’re worried?”
“…”
“Yeah, fine.”
“Now tell me why.”
“…”
“Just look at you guys. Remember that time at the bar when there was trouble? What if I hadn’t gone? The junior might have been expelled from university by now.” I said, getting more frustrated as I remembered that night. How could that little person get that drunk? Not being careful at all, thinking I could do whatever I wanted. And the reason was just ridiculous, fighting over an ex-girlfriend, it was utterly pointless.
Thought you could take care of yourself, huh?
Ha…
Big talk.
Imagine if I hadn’t gone to get you. Imagine if it was someone else taking you back. Imagine causing a scene at someone else’s house. Just try and see how much trouble that would cause. The 200,000 debt you think about, that’s not even a quarter of what it could be.
“Ugh…sigh, our friend’s in deep trouble.” Arthit said after letting out a big sigh, “The symptoms are severe…and the mouth is just as bad, that’s for sure.”
“But what I really want to know is why you are like this with this person.”
“Actually, the reason is quite long.” Hill said, “But I think the reason it’s this serious is because this kid…”
“…”
“…What do you call it, this person is Joe’s kryptonite.” “How so?” “He’s his nemesis.” “More than just his type.” !!
“Hill.” I called out.
“What?”
“You’ve said too much.”
“Yeah.”
“…”
“Because you won’t admit it.”
♣♣♣
Give me money?
Three thousand!
No, that’s not it…
No. I think it’s not that, there must be something else!!
North♣: Are you really giving it to me?
North♣: You’re not just joking, right?
North♣:. It’s not like you’re deducting it from my debt, right?
(Read)
Ah…read but no reply.
Damn.
I’m not feeling at ease at all.
I walked from the parking lot and sat on a marble bench nearby in the morning. The air’s nice like this, but soon enough, the sun will be strong. I won’t be able to sit around here for long; I’ll have to call someone to pick me up and drop me off at the faculty. But why would I go to the faculty in the first place? I don’t have classes until the afternoon.
The better question to ask is why I woke up so early.
Forget it, complaining won’t change anything, now that I’m here. I scrolled through my contacts list, Ter can’t help since he doesn’t have a car. Skater and Kyu are out of the question; they can’t know I’m here, or they’ll grill me for information.
In the end, I called Duennao again.
(Morning, bastard) Duennao answered the phone with a groggy, irritable voice, (I just fell asleep at 4 AM, didn’t I?)
“Oh, really? You were up late playing games?”
(Yeah, I have afternoon classes, damn it, my eyes hurt, and why did you call? If you called just to annoy me, you’ll get a kick in the butt.)
“Why are you so angry? I’m not annoying you, okay, maybe I am, but let me bother you for a moment.”
(No, bye.)
“Listen first!”
(What?)
“Come pick me up, I’m alone, I’m lonely.”
(Pick up what? Your husband?)
“What husband? I’m serious, come pick me up.”
(Pick you up from where? Where are you going?)
“To the faculty.”
(I told you we have afternoon classes.)
“I’m at the medical faculty, can’t go anywhere. No car, Phii Joe dropped me off and left.”
(Oh, so you’re just going to stay at the faculty waiting?)
“Yes.” (Walk there then.)
“From here to the engineering faculty? You animal, it’s insanely far, like walking to the edge of the Andaman Sea.”
(I’m too lazy, wait, doesn’t Tiger have morning classes?)
“Oh, good point, ask him if he can swing by and pick me up.”
(That animal!!)
“What, who are you cursing at? Me?” Suddenly Nao shouted, startling me.
(Just a sec.)
(Ouch!! Ease up!! Nao, ease up!! That’s enough. I’m hurt, ouch!!) Tiger’s voice came through the line. What’s going on? Why is Tiger yelling like that?
(Here I am) Duennao came back on the line, sounding out of breath, (Had to make me work hard this early in the morning.)
“What happened, what’s going on with Tiger?” I asked.
(I’m beating him up, that’s what.)
“Huh, why beat him up?”
(He was hugging me in his sleep, that’s why I felt cramped. The bastard, the damn thing. So I beat him.)
“Calm down.” I said, laughing a little. Ouch, I kind of felt sorry for him but it was also funny. Poor Tiger, couldn’t even sneak a cuddle.
(Tiger! Get up!!)
(Just a moment, I’m all choked up here, woke up to a kick, ouch.)
(What time do you have class?)
(Nine, why?)
(Go pick up North, he’s at the medical faculty.)
(That’s out of the way, it’s a waste of gas.)
(Talk to him yourself) Nao said before putting Tiger on to talk to me.
“Oh, you unstealthy one.” I teased him a bit. (I’m usually stealthy, ’cause I always wake up before him. You called and woke him up, shit, you ruined my happiness) Tiger complained with a very annoyed tone, making me feel a little guilty for him. If I hadn’t called to wake Nao, he might have continued his sneaky cuddle.
“Come on, I didn’t know. Can you come pick me up? I’m at the front of the medical faculty.”
(Why should I? Do I have to do things for someone who ruins my happiness?)
“Huh, now you’re being like this, what’s wrong? Tiger.”
(I told you to call me Sua, you can threaten all you want, I’m annoyed. Yeah, I’ll come pick you up. Just wait in front of the faculty.) [1] Sua means Tiger
“Don’t forget about buying me green tea.” I reminded him of yesterday’s promise.
(Yeah, you damn thing.)
It ended with me getting scolded by Sua, but I didn’t really mind that much. I scanned around, and it was an unfamiliar place. I don’t come around here often because it’s in a different direction, on the opposite side from my faculty. There’s no one from my faculty studying around here either. So, why are engineering students hanging around the medical faculty?
I didn’t wait long before I saw in his student uniform, riding up on a big bike and stopping in front of me.
Big bike.
Again…
I forgot that Tiger also rides a big bike.
Leave a Reply